Prior to the advent of the interactive “virtual worlds” or interactive on-line communities operable through the registration of a purchased toy on an interactive website using a registration code (U.S. Pat. Nos. 7,442,108, 7,425,169, and 7,465,212) a consumer would purchase a product, such as a toy (e.g., a stuffed plush animal or other creature, etc.) as a gift for a child, and that child then used the toy for imaginative activities. However, the product manufacturer relationship with the product did not typically continue until the next product was purchased.
This lack of continuity represented a lost opportunity to take advantage of the fact that the child or other product owner likely wants to create a whole interactive world for the product for other purposes, such as for play, collecting, etc. A means of creating a such an interactive, imaginative world using modern computer tools, such as a personal computer connected to the internet, wherein the product can be utilized in a computer generated “virtual world” for various games and activities, allows the owner a more varied and interactive means of playing with the product.
In addition, the virtual world as described therein could also be a means to generate additional revenue through the marketing of advertisement space to interested third parties. The placing of advertisements on the Internet is commonly known and propagated ubiquitously technique.
Recent developments pertaining to advertising on the Internet have been made in this field including combining interactive information services together with interactive advertising on a communications network such as the Internet and LANs wherein the information service may be an interactive game played on across a network (U.S. Pat. No. 6,183,366). Notably, this system did not provide the end user or gamer the ability to proactively control their gaming experience by disabling the third party advertisements.